{"id":20129,"date":"2017-11-14T09:35:32","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T14:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=20129"},"modified":"2019-11-15T06:43:47","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T11:43:47","slug":"hack-a-plane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/hack-a-plane\/20129\/","title":{"rendered":"Hack all the things: Looks like aircraft are next in line"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine a plane: large, wings, lots of passengers \u2014 you get the picture. And it can be hacked, or so it seems. Such a theoretical possibility has been voiced more than a few times<\/a> by more than a few people<\/a>; a plane, like any other modern craft, is after all a network of computers, some of which are connected to the Internet. Now such theorizing seems to have been confirmed in practice.<\/p>\n

The claim was made<\/a> by none other than a representative of the US Department of Homeland Security. In the space of two days, Robert Hickey managed to gain access to the internal systems of an aircraft parked at an airport, without having physical access to the aircraft or any insider assistance. What\u2019s more, his tools were quite ordinary items permitted in and around airports.<\/p>\n

The plane hacked by Hickey was a Boeing 757. This model was taken out of production in 2004, but is still in service with many airlines, including the three largest in the United States (and the world): Delta, American Airlines, and United Airlines. The details of the hacking, which happened a year ago but has only just been made public, have been not disclosed. Hickey confined himself to saying that \u201cradio frequency communications\u201d had been used.<\/p>\n

Briefed on Hickey\u2019s report, Boeing issued a statement that the 757 has no cybervulnerabilities. Either way, it seems that it is now the aviation industry\u2019s turn to start pondering cybersecurity. Just a few years ago, the hacking of cars was also purely theoretical, but then Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek hacked a Jeep<\/a>, and everything changed. Since then, car hackings<\/a> have been reported<\/a> by numerous research teams. Perhaps aviation now faces a similar moment of truth.<\/p>\n

Black Hat USA 2015: The full story of how that Jeep was hacked<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n